Seminar: Women at the Margins Anthropology 81 Spring (Term III) 1995 Instructor: Candice Bradley Office: Stephenson 316 Phone: ext 6718 Office hours: T-Th 11:00-12:00 M and W 9:00-10:00 Course Description: This course is about the effects of "modernization," "economic development" and colonialism on women at the periphery ("the margins") of the world-economy. We focus on changing roles, statuses, opportunities, and options of poor women in developed and developing countries. Topics include production, reproduction, domesticity, labor, empowerment, resistence, and the environment. Multiple perspectives are explored, including modernization theory, dependency theory, conceptions of the "Third World," world-systems theory, feminist sociology and anthropology, and postmodernism. Course Requirements: 1. Annotated bibliography of readings: Write a one to two page typed summary of each reading in the syllabus. Include the citation for the reading, in American Anthropologist style, and a clearly written description of the reading, its theoretical orientation, and its contribution to the literature on women. These will be kept in a binder. (40 percent of grade) 2. Take-home final: Distributed on the last day of the term, due by 4:00 pm on the day of the final. (50 percent of grade) 3. Attendance and class participation are worth 10 percent of your grade. Each class missed loses .5 percent of your total grade. Books: Ruth Behar (1993) Translated Woman: Crossing the Border with Esperanza's Story. Boston: Beacon Press. The life story of a Mexican woman, told by a Cuban-born University of Michigan anthropologist who weaves Esperanza's story into her own. Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing (1993) In the Realm of the Diamond Queen: Marginality in an Out-of-the Way Place. Princeton: Princeton University Press. An anthropologist and an extraordinary Meratus Dayak woman explore the essence of marginality (perhaps, as the Diamond Queen) in the rainforests of Borneo. Belinda Bozzoli (1991) Women of Phokeng: Consciousness, Life Stragety, and Migrancy in South Africa, 1900-1983. Portsmouth: Heinemann. An exploration of the lives of 22 South African women through their own interpretations of their histories. Aihwa Ong (1987) Spirits of Resistance and Capitalist Discipline: Factory Women in Malaysia. NY: Suny. Malaysian women factory workers and their resistance to capitalism. Week 1 (March 28-30) Tuesday, 3/28 Introduction & Overview Thursday 3/30 The "Third World": Statistics & Development Readings: "Towards a geography of gender in developing market economies," by Janet G. Townsend and Janet Henshall Momsen (from Momsen and Townsend (eds), Geography of Gender in the Third World NY: SUNY Press, pp. 27-81). "Common Themes, Different Contexts: Third World Women and Feminism," Cheryl Johnson-Odim (from Mohanty et al, Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 314-327). Week 2 (April 4-6) Modernization and Development Tuesday, 4/4 Sexual Division of Labor in Agriculture Readings: Chapters 1 through 3 ("Male and female farming systems"; "The economics of polygamy"; "Loss of status under European rule") from Ester Boserup (1970) Women's Role in Economic Development. NY: St. Martin's Press. Thursday, 4/6 Video: "The Global Assembly Line" (58 min) Week 3 (April 11-13) Modernization & Development Continued Tuesday, 4/11 Case Studies in Modernization & Development Readings: "Colonial fairy tales and the knife and fork doctrine in the heart of Africa," by Nancy Rose Hunt, (in Karen Tranberg Hansen, ed, 1992, African Encounters with Domesticity, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 143-171.) "The Sexual Division of Labor in Rural China," by Elizabeth Croll, (in Lourdes Beneria, ed, 1982 Women and Development: The Sexual Division of labor in Rural Societies, NY:Praeger, pp. 223-247). A history of China's changing use of women in the labor force (economic development). "Women farmers and inequities in agricultural services," by Kathleen Staudt (in Edna Bay, ed, 1982, Women and Work in Africa, Boulder: Westview, 207-224) Videos: "Manmade Famine," "An African Recovery" Thursday, 4/13 Marxist and Dependency Approaches Readings: "The dynamics of the sexual division of labor and integration of rural women into the world market," by Maria Mies, (in Lourdes Beneria, (ed) (1982) Women and Development: The Sexual Division of labor in Rural Societies, NY:Praeger, pp. 1-28). "Engels Revisted: Women, the organization of production, and private property," by Karen Sacks (1974) (from Rosaldo and Lamphere, Women, Culture and Society, Stanford University Press, 1974, pp. 206-222) Week 4 (April 18-20) Women in the World-System Tuesday, April 18 The World-system Readings: "World-systems theory," C. Bradley. (In press, Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology.) Immanuel Wallerstein : "Ideological tensions of capitalism: universalism versus racism and sexism" (from Smith et al Racism, Sexism and the World-System, 3-9 1988) Thursday April 20 Readings: "Images of docility: Asian women and the world-economy," Nancy Lutz (from Smith et al, Racism, Sexism and the World-System, 57-73) "Minorities and the world-system: implications of the internationalization of minorities," by Martha Gimenez, in Smith et al, pp 39-56) "'A taylor is nothing without a wife, and very often a child': gender and labor force formation in the New York garment industry, 1880-1920." by Kathie Friedman Kasaba (from Smith et al, pp 85-93). Week 5 (April 25-27) Women's Bodies in the World System: Reproduction & Pollution Readings: Exerpt from population and world-system piece, by Katherine Ward. "Controlling births and bodies in China," by Susan Greenhalgh, American Ethnologist. "The seed and the earth: biotechnology and the colonisation of regeneration," by Vindana Shiva, (from Shiva, Close to Home, 1994, New Society Publishers, pp. 128-143). "After the forest: AIDS as ecological collapse in Thailand," by Ann Danaiya Usher, (from Shiva, Close to Home, 1994, New Society Publishers, pp. 10-42). "Women act: Women and environmental protection in India," by Pamela Philpose, (in Judith Plant, Healing the Wounds, 67-75) Week 6 (May 2-4) Historical & Economy/S. Africa Book: Women of Phokeng Week 7 (May 9-11) Marxist Analysis/Malasia Book: Spirits of Resistance and Capitalist Discipline Week 8 (May 16-18) Postmodern Tales/Borneo Book: In the Realm of the Diamond Queen Week 9 (May 23-25) Postmodern Tales/Mexico/U.S. Reading: Translated Woman Week 10 (May 30-June 1) Middle Class Women Marginalized Tuesday, May 30: Women in Science Reading: "Discrimination against women in science: The confusion of outcome with process," by Stephen Cole and Robert Fiorentine, (in The Outer Circle, by Harriet Zuckerman, et al, 1991) Exerpt from Science article. Video: "Science and Gender with Eveyln Fox Keller" Thursday, June 1: TBA